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94 NSW Dept of Primary Industries 3. COMMERCIAL FISHERIES Bruce Pease and Trudy Walford - NSW Dept of Primary Industries 3.1. Introduction In this report, the harvest of any life history stage of naturally occurring longfinned eels for commercial profit is considered to constitute a commercial fishery. The eels may be sold for direct consumption or may be sold to the aquaculture industry for further grow-out and value-adding. Any translocation of naturally occurring eels for further growth and later harvest for commercial profit is also considered to be a commercial activity. Harvest of a range of life-history stages for an increasing range of markets has lead to a complex set of commercial fisheries and related catch and effort reporting systems for river eels in NSW. Based on the following comments by Roughley (1955), who was Superintendant of NSW Fisheries from 1939 to 1952, it is apparent that there were no commercial eel fisheries in NSW prior to 1955: “In view of the fact that there is so little demand for eels in Australia they can be viewed only as being in the nature of pests, for they destroy large quantities of fish that are appreciated by the public and, when occurring in streams containing trout, they prey on these valuable sporting fish extensively. In North Gippsland farmers who endeavour to raise ducks are pestered by eels, which bite off the legs of the ducklings when swimming or drag them to the bottom to consume them. Although found in greatest abundance in fresh water, eels sometimes occur in considerable concentrations in the brackish water of estuaries, where they may interfere seriously with the operations of net fishermen.” The first reported commercial landings of eels in NSW appear in the annual Report of the Chief Secretary on Fisheries in New South Wales for the Year Ended 30th June, 1970 (Pease and Grinberg 1995). It is highly likely that commercial landings of eels occurred before this time but fishers recorded this information on monthly catch returns (reporting forms) under the heading of “Other species”. “Eels” were added to the list of species provided on the monthly catch returns for collecting catch data from coastal estuaries (Form 49) and inland fresh waters west of the Dividing Range (Form 51) in 1969/70. Therefore, a specific space was provided for recording eel catches separately from other species for the first time. Annual landings have been reported from tidal waters every year since then. Very low eel catches (probably bycatch in mesh nets, hoop nets and fish traps) have been reported intermittently from inland areas west of the Dividing Range since 1970. Based on the known distribution of freshwater eel species in Australia (Chapter 2.2), landings from these inland areas were probably shortfinned eels and will not be considered further in this report. Since 1970, most of the eel landings have been reported from tidal waters (estuaries) east of the Dividing Range and this fishery will be referred to as the “estuarine large yellow eel fishery”. NSW Fisheries Commissioners began closing non-tidal fresh waters east of the Range to commercial fishing in 1902 to protect trout (Fisheries Commissioners 1903). By 1970, all of these waters were closed to commercial fishing in order to protect trout as well as air-breathing animals, such as platypuses and freshwater turtles. Prior to 1983, eels were captured in estuarine waters using a range of methods including, mesh nets, lines and fish traps. An “eel trap” was specified in the Fisheries and Oyster Farms (General) Regulations 1983 for the first time and subsequently modified in the Fisheries Management (General) Regulation 1995 and now 2002 (see Appendix IV). Since 1983, commercial fishers have FRDC Project No. 98/127 Longfinned Eel Biology and Assessment, Edited by B.C. Pease NSW Dept of Primary Industries 95 only been allowed to target yellow eels in estuarine waters using the specified eel trap. The reported bycatch of eels by other methods of fishing is not significant. Within the Estuary General Fishery approximately 6% of the reported eel landings are retained in mesh nets and outside the Estuary General Fishery approximately 1% are retained in prawn trawl nets (NSW Fisheries 2001). With the expansion of lucrative new markets for live eels in Asia in the early 1990’s, a new fishery to harvest large yellow eels from freshwater impoundments (hereafter referred to as the “impoundment large yellow eel fishery”) commenced in 1992. Eel trapping in this fishery is allowed by two types of special permits. Type I permits are issued automatically to fishers who have been tendered by relevant authorities to harvest eels from large impoundments under their control. Type II permits allow fishers to harvest eels from farm dams and small, publicly-owned, off-stream storages. Both permit types must be renewed annually and stipulate a number of terms and conditions (Appendix V). In 1995, a small fishery to harvest glass eels/elvers for aquaculture (hereafter referred to as the “glass eel fishery) also commenced. This has remained a very small-scale experimental fishery controlled by another type of permit. The current terms and conditions of this permit are listed in Appendix (VI). There was also an initial quota of 100 kg for the maximum annual harvest of glass eels. In 1999, this quota was increased to 300 kg per year in an effort to add capacity and stimulate eel aquaculture in NSW. Under the Fisheries and Oyster Farms Act of 1935, a single commercial fishing license allowed fishers to trap eels in most of the tidal waters in NSW and provided eligibility to obtain a permit to trap eels in freshwater farm dams and impoundments. The new Fisheries Management Act of 1994 provided a framework to restrict access, thus turning the estuarine eel trap fishery into a restricted or limited entry fishery. Each fisher must possess one of a limited number of eel trapping endorsements, as well as a commercial fishing license and an Estuary General Fishery endorsement. In 2002, a new fishery management strategy (NSW Fisheries 2003) was implemented for the Estuary General Fishery. This strategy imposes a system of rolling performance trigger points on the annual catch of eels from each estuary in NSW. If the trigger points are activated, a review of the eel fishery must be conducted and an appropriate action plan must be developed in order to maintain sustainable harvest levels. Prior to 1997 there was no minimum legal size limit for eels. A minimum legal size limit of 30 cm was implemented for the commercial and recreational eel fisheries in 1997 to provide consistency with size limits for river eels in Victoria and Queensland. The 30 cm limit was originally based on the marketable size of shortfinned eels in Victoria, where the commercial river eel catch consists primarily of shortfins (Hall et al. 1990). Historically, an unknown (probably small) proportion of the trapped eels under the minimum marketable size (approximately 500 grams for longfins) were translocated (often illegally) to small privately owned impoundments for grow-out and subsequent re-harvest. Since the minimum size limit was implemented, a significant legal aquaculture market has developed for eels larger than the minimum legal size but smaller than the minimum acceptable market size. This “small yellow eel fishery” is a sub-component of the estuarine large yellow eel fishery. Submission of monthly and in some cases daily catch returns summarizing fishing catch and effort is a mandatory requirement of all permit, restricted and share managed fisheries in NSW. An array of catch return forms have been designed to capture catch and effort data in the estuarine commercial fisheries since 1970 (Pease and Grinberg 1995; Tanner and Liggins 1999). A separate daily logbook for recording catch and effort in the farm dam and impoundment fishery was implemented in 1995 and has recently (2001) been revised as a monthly catch return form (Appendix VII). Separate recording systems for estuarine and freshwater impoundment catches has Longfinned Eel Biology and Assessment, Edited by B.C. Pease FRDC Project No. 98/127 96 NSW Dept of Primary Industries led to confusion and some double reporting. Data for separate catch and effort recording systems are stored in separate databases and some databases are held in different locations, depending on whether the data are considered to be aquaculture or commercial fisheries information collected from fishers holding permits or restricted fishery endorsements. The use of ambiguous and confusing common names for eel species on catch and effort return forms prior to 1997 has also made it difficult to accurately interpret commercial catch statistics for this group of fish species. Spaces for identifying recorded landings were provided on the monthly return forms for estuarine catch and effort as follows: 1) 1970 to 1990 - “eels”, 2) 1990 to 1992 - “eel, short finned” and “eel, other (specify)”, 3) 1992 to 1997 – “eel, short finned or river”, “eel, southern conger” and “eel, other (specify)”, and 4) 1997 to present – “eel, shortfin river” and “eel, longfin river” (Appendix VIII). The available choices prior to 1997 were obviously confusing when it is considered that conger eel is another popular common name for longfinned river eels, as well as eels belonging to the genus Conger. It is doubtful that fishers accurately specified longfinned eels by correctly writing the name on forms prior to 1997. The commercial fishery for longfinned eels in NSW (173 tonnes in 1999/00 (Tanner and Liggins 2001)) is the largest fishery for this species in Australia (Kailola 1993). Commercial landings in 2000 were only 42 and 25 tonnes from Queensland (data provided by Queensland Department of Primary Industries) and Victoria (Department of Natural Resources and Environment 2002), respectively.

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